Chet is 12 years old today!

What a day! We began our day with our traditional birthday pancake breakfast...Chet is 12 today! What a great smile he has...even at 6am! :)

After eating breakfast, the day continued with cleaning the kitchen, folding 7 loads of laundry, homeschooling with Savannah, tending to Kylie who is sick with the swine flu, picking up Quinn early from school after the nurse called to say he had a low grade fever (although he seemed pretty perky when I picked him up and no fever at home), enduring one full hour of therapy with Brooke and her physical therapist, baking a birthday cake, and overseeing all else that goes on in a household on any given day....I decided to be spontaneous and request that we go out to dinner to celebrate Chet's 12th birthday!...what a relief not to have to make dinner! Thanks, handsome for taking us out! :) (Kylie remained at home...and we brought dinner in to her.)

Here we are all tired out after a long day...ready to enjoy "the cake" and some presents....don't you just love the Christmas wrapping paper...hey, it was either that or pink.

Chet was very happy to receive his very own BB gun. Wow...he's growing up so fast! Next year he'll be an official teenager!!! We sure do love you, Chet!

Ammon and Savannah at Home School September 2009

Ok, so I posted pictures of the kids on their first day of school...but somehow managed to not get one of Savannah and Ammon until yesterday. School at home has been challenging, but is a wonderful experience...we really are enjoying our time together learning and having fun! Ammon really enjoys being a part of much of the learning, too!

Quinn's First Soccer Game September 2009

Saturday, Quinn played in his first ever soccer game! He did a great job of defending the goal! Here he's about to give the ball a pretty powerful punch.
Quinn also got to be goalie for a quarter. He did a super job...didn't allow any goals! Here he is after stopping a goal attempt, throwing it out to his teammates...who then proceded to score a goal! We had a fun time cheering Quinn on....who knew soccer could be so much fun! :)

Fieldtrip to the Silver Bluff Audubon 11 September 2009

School at home does have it's advantages! :) Friday Brenden was at home "resting" after having his 4 wisom teeth and one other molar pulled on Thursday, so we took a fun trip to the Audubon together and enjoyed some hiking through the woods. Although we heard several birds, amazingly enough we never were able to spot them.

All the beautiful smiles of Brooke 6 September 2009

Yesterday after church Kylie just happened to have her camera with her and was able to capture Brooke's smiles while taking steps with Elise's assistance. Brooke keeps us smilin' all the time with her beautiful smiles! :)

Camping...memories of tent at Beaver Island

On the injured list September 2009

Both Brooke and Ammon "took a tumble" the last weekend in August. On Friday evening Brooke took a spill and met the sidewalk...scared Mom, who said many a prayer while tending to her wounds. Brooke ended up with a scraped nose and chin, but is ok. On Saturday late afternoon, Ammon got his foot stuck in Dad's bicycle tire...while it was moving. Ammon ended up missing a chunk of flesh about the size of a quarter near his ankle, but is ok also. We are extremely grateful that they are both doing fine and recovering well...resilience is a wonderful part of being young! They are great buddies. Here they are resting on the couch together :)

Brooke rolls over for the 1st time! 1 September 2009

Brooke rolled over completely on her own on September 1, 2009...her first official day without any seizure medication! YEA! I was in the kitchen assisting Savannah with some school work, when Ammon called me from his spot on the couch (he was laying down with his foot up for the day due to an injury...more later) in the family room, "Mom, come see, Brooke is rolling over!" I only had to turn around to see her...and happily I saw her roll from back to front! We all cheered for her....and then grabbed the camera and shot these pictures of her rolling (with some encouragement).

1st Day of School! 17 August 2009

The first day of school...Elise is a senior, Kylie is a freshman, and Chet is in 6th grade at the middle school (which is right next to the church and the high school), so he rides with Elise and Kylie to seminary (6:15am) and goes from there to school. Elise is loving driving....and I must admit I love not having to be the taxi so much :) Quinn is in 1st grade and our only one at elementary school this year. I am homeschooling Savannah this year...so far it's going fairly well....a bit of an adjustment, but fun to be so involved in her learning. It's fun to involve Ammon in some of her art, music, science, language arts and history lessons/reading/projects. I still need to take a "beginning of the year photo" of Savannah.

Chet earns 2nd class rank in Boy Scouts 12 August 2009

Chet got to pin his award on Brenden (traditionally the boys pin their moms) since I wasn't able to be there that night....Brenden's the one that deserves the pin anyway since he is Chet's 11 year old scout leader. They have been working hard over the past year....and have had a lot of fun together! Brenden will miss not working closely with Chet each week as Chet will be moving up when he turns 12 in September.

August Birthdays! 2009

Elise and Kylie celebrated their birthdays in August. Kylie turned 14 this year!

And Elise turned Sweet 16!

We celebrated with friends and family in Grandma and Grandpa Taylor's back yard. Elise and Kylie made a huge twister board by sewing together several sheets...other games included water balloons and M&Ms. They enjoyed lots of music, food and fun with their friends. This photo captures most of their friends that were there that evening....great group of kids!

Beautiful Elise....senior pictures 29 July 2009

Here's a fun picture of Kylie and Elise. Kylie's helping do Elise's hair for her senior pictures. I can hardly believe this is Elise's last year of high school!